Abraham Lincoln
~ 1809 - 1865
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. He is best known for leading the country through the Civil War, preserving the Union, and issuing the Emancipation Proclamation that led to the abolition of slavery in the United States.
Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.
I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had no where else to go. My own wisdom and that of all about me seemed insufficient for that day.
We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.
I want it said of me by those who knew me best, that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow.
As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.
The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew.
With Malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds.
Stand with anybody that stands right, stand with him while he is right and part with him when he goes wrong.
I do the very best I know how - the very best I can; and I mean to keep on doing so until the end.
Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.
Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. As a peacemaker the lawyer has superior opportunity of being a good man. There will still be business enough.
Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.
Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition. Whether it be true or not, I can say, for one, that I have no other so great as that of being truly esteemed of my fellow-men, by rendering myself worthy of their esteem. How far I shall succeed in gratifying this ambition is yet to be developed.
Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right.
You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.
Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other.
A capacity, and taste, for reading, gives access to whatever has already been discovered by others. It is the key, or one of the keys, to the already solved problems.
In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.
Honor to the soldier and sailor everywhere, who bravely bears his country's cause. Honor, also, to the citizen who cares for his brother in the field and serves, as he best can, the same cause.
These capitalists generally act harmoniously and in concert to fleece the people; and now that they have got into a quarrel with themselves, we are called upon to appropriate the people's money to settle the quarrel.
Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. We, of this Congress and this administration, will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation.
The things I want to know are in books; my best friend is the man who'll get me a book I ain't read.
This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or exercise their revolutionary right to overthrow it.
My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure.
Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail. Without it, nothing can succeed.
Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.
Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.
I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live by the light that I have. I must stand with anybody that stands right, and stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong.
The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep's throat, for which the sheep thanks the shepherd as his liberator, while the wolf denounces him for the same act as the destroyer of liberty. Plainly, the sheep and the wolf are not agreed upon a definition of liberty.
The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.
At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.
My dream is of a place and a time where America will once again be seen as the last best hope of earth.
I'm a success today because I had a friend who believed in me and I didn't have the heart to let him down.
Example is not the main thing in influencing other people; it's the only thing.
You can have anything you want if you want it badly enough. You can be anything you want to be, do anything you set out to accomplish if you hold to that desire with singleness of purpose.
America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.
I like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives. I like to see a man live so that his place will be proud of him.
If once you forfeit the confidence of your fellow-citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem.
That some achieve great success, is proof to all that others can achieve it as well.
Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves; and under the rule of a just God, cannot long retain it.
If this is coffee, please bring me some tea; but if this is tea, please bring me some coffee.
Surely God would not have created such a being as man, with an ability to grasp the infinite, to exist only for a day! No, no, man was made for immortality.
The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just.
We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.
How many legs does a dog have if you call his tail a leg? Four. Saying that a tail is a leg doesn't make it a leg.
I remember my mother's prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life.
I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts.
Leave nothing for tomorrow which can be done today.